Culture

Teens are more than possible risk factors and test scores. In an effort to create a well-rounded picture of Minnesota teens today – what they think about, hope for, and how they communicate – ThreeSixty Journalism and the Minnesota Historical Society are calling teens to fill out an online survey.

By Laura Shannon

While waiting in line for the bathroom during the intermission of Les Misérables at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, I overheard a little girl complaining that the musical wasn’t as good as “High School Musical” or “Grease,” and she was right. It was better, much better.

By Zamzam Abdirahman

I never believed that people at my high school would start to look at me as the Somali girl, and not Zamzam anymore. But that’s what happened when the Somali population at school more than tripled in five years.

By Laura Shannon

The 18-year-old Ryan McCartan spent his summer training in Germany, rubbing elbows with musical theater legends, and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

By Sabrina Kennelly

I love Central High School’s diversity, and that’s why I’m concerned about the Saint Paul Public School district’s new plan, “Strong Schools, Strong Communities.” Because of new busing restrictions, I’m worried this plan might allow schools to become racially segregated again.

By By Mai Ker Hang, 17, Harding Senior High School

Kamolchai Hang, 12, of St. Paul, could become the next shaman in his Hmong family, continuing a religious tradition of more than 1,000 years.

By Grace Pastoor

When Ready Htoo tried his first hot dog in America he loved it – until he found out what it was called.

By Sabrina Kennelly

Ever had the urge to touch artwork at a museum? Well, here’s a place for you rule breakers who always get hassled by museum security officers — Franconia Sculpture Park, located 45 minutes northeast of the Twin Cities in Chisago Country.

By Dymanh Chhoun, University of Minnesota, Class of 2011

I can tell that this country has better opportunities for my son. Better resources for education and different things. So I think now I’m sacrificing for him. And I am happy with that.

By Asma Adam

My name is Shamso Ali Hashi. I grew up in a small city outside Mogadishu. I finished high school there. I got married young and had 11 children in total. Six passed away and five are alive.

By Jada Pulley

I’m Hmong, and you cannot find Hmong on the map of the world. There is no country that is mine. So I link myself up to the people who love me, who no matter where we were, carved out a place to belong for me.

By Stacy Dahl

I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. My 13 siblings and Mom and Dad all traveled here together when I was 13. I just graduated from Robbinsdale Armstrong High School and started my first year of college at the University of Minnesota this fall.

By Corey Kramer

There was a lot of that going on because the Woolworth’s would not allow us to eat at the lunch counter — they had a separate lunch counter for us. The fellows were the ones who integrated the lunch counter. The females did not participate in the sit-ins at the lunch counter. We supported them, maybe doing papers or taking notes and making sure they didn’t get behind in the classes.

By Mariya Khan, Anoka High School

Mariya Khan interviewed Matthew Little, a long-time civil rights leader, as part of a project on immigrants in Minnesota.

In the South, where I was born and educated, it was an established mores that African Americans, and to an extent, other minorities too, were basically inferior human beings.

By Maddie Colbert, South High School

As part of a project on immigrants in Minnesota, ThreeSixty Journalism student Maddie Colbert interviewed Betty Ellison-Harpole about her childhood in the South and the strange experience of attending an integrated university when she moved North.

By Vang Thao

At the 2010 Hmong New Year at the Metrodome, Jasmine Tierra Bondurant, an 18-year-old African-American girl, appeared on stage and sang two Hmong songs: “Mi Noog” by Sudden Rush and “Nyog Ib Sab” by Pagnia Xiong.

Catanis Yang, 19, of St. Michael, Minn. watched Jasmine perform and was blown away.